Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur's Gate 3 are very different RPGs, but their bombshell success stories are eerily similar. "We never intended for all these awards," said Sandfall art director Nicholas Maxson Francombe moments after the game was crowned Ultimate Game Of The Year at The Golden Joysticks 2025, echoing the shock of Larian lead Swen Vincke's Game of the Year acceptance speech at The Game Awards 2023. "We just wanted to make a game that we liked and thought other players would enjoy."
That player-centric mindset might be one key ingredient in its secret sauce, but much like how Baldur's Gate 3's meticulously crafted D&D experience was a true labor of love, I'd argue it's all about passion.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is testament to the unique, rare magic to be found when studios follow their hearts over money and still manage to strike solid gold. The JRPG seemed to explode on impact when it launched in April this year – I count myself among many newly-converted genre fans who stumbled into it blind. If its victory at The Golden Joysticks, record-high number of nominations at The Game Awards 2025, and recent crowning as GamesRadar+'s Game of the Year proves anything, it's that Sandfall is poised to reap those fruits.
Une vie à t'aimer
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Seven months is all it took for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to become legendary – but that was never the goal. "I think we all felt the same thing. Like, 'it's not going to be big, it's going to be cool,'" CEO and creative director Guillaume Broche told Radio Times Gaming. "It's a weird feeling, when you put your heart out into the world, and the world embraces it and gives you so much love back."
For some of Clair Obscur's star-studded cast members, however, I reckon that feeling might be familiar. "I think I'm very, very lucky to have chosen games that just happen to be pretty iconic," actor Jennifer English, who won Best Lead Performer at the Joysticks, tells GamesRadar+. You'll know her as Maelle in Sandfall's latest – or Shadowheart in Larian Studios' 2023 smash-hit Baldur's Gate 3. "It's so hard with games, because we don’t get to see the script," she continues, "and Clair Obscur was one of those rare instances where I got to read the whole thing before I started."
Joined on the bill by fellow BG3 alums Devora Wilde and Aliona Baranova, as well as Ben Starr of Final Fantasy 16 fame (and a litany of other new games too – he's a busy fellow these days), these actors have become some of the most prolific in the biz, and capably made Expedition 33's script shine.
"It was hard, because I had to find the subtlety of it being the same but different [from Maelle, Alicia's Painted self in the Canvas], and even though they did effects on my voice, I had to find a very different cadence, a different personality, while also keeping it true to that core soul," English says of portraying Alicia.
Une vie à peindre
What an amazing thing, to have a game that is so widely loved and celebrated and represents so much of the reason why I continue to play games.
Ben Starr
Her work has not been in vain. Clair Obscur's arresting cast of characters as the heartrending journeys they embark upon is no doubt a huge factor in why the game has become so intensely memorable – not only for players, but for its geeky cast who count themselves among that number, too.
"This is a game that was made with love, and it was made for a very specific audience. It just turns out that the audience for this game was bigger than people thought," Verso actor Ben Starr tells GamesRadar+.
He points to how quickly and easily fans have "taken it under their wing and made it their personality," from conventions to complex cosplays and other creative expressions the game has given them a new outlook on the human condition.
"I’m a huge fan of RPGs, a person who was raised on these things," Starr reflects. "What an amazing thing, to have a game that is so widely loved and celebrated and represents so much of the reason why I continue to play games. It’s the reason I’m in games."
That emotional affect is a tangible entity that has clearly taken on a life of its own, propelling Clair Obscur's journey toward global domination.
Just look at the scores of baguette-toting fans at conventions across the world, or the way developers on the likes of Dispatch have all gushed about Expedition 33's achievements. According to Sandfall's CEO, the outpouring of support has been the most important thing coming out of it so far, already inspiring the developer to commence work on post-launch content.
"You can look at the sales numbers, and they’re wonderful, and we’re very happy to have them," Broche told Radio Times gaming of the game's critical and commercial success, which saw it sell 3.3 million units in its first 33 days.
"But the most striking thing for us, and the real reward in our heart, is the emotional response to the characters, to the story, how much people embrace the characters and [how] they helped them get through tough moments in life." To him, it's the perfect example of why art exists in the first place: "to create an emotional response and be something that moves people."
Pour ceux qui suivront
It's a weird feeling, when you put your heart out into the world, and the world embraces it.
Guillaume Broche
The passion infusing every drop of Clair Obscur is a collaborative feat, poured in from the creative team, the cast itself, and the players who experienced and fell in love with it immediately.
The game is already on track to continue its trailblazing winning streak, following in the footsteps of titans like Baldur's Gate 3. But one question hangs overhead: after such rampant successes fresh out the gate, what does the new double-A studio have in store for us after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Thankfully, consistency is key for Broche. "What we want to do is exactly what we wanted to do when we started the game: make games that are really honest and true, and write stories that move people and really connect people emotionally. And that’s what we are going to keep doing moving forward," he confirms. It's clear that he views Sandfall's smaller team size, something that has garnered it plenty of admiration and respect over the last seven months, as advantageous instead of a challenge to overcome.
"We don’t want to grow too much as a company, we want to learn from the mistakes we made with the first production and improve on them," Broche says of the studio's desire to stay its noble course, choosing passion over dreams of exponential growth. "We work well as we are now, as a small team, and we want to stay like that. We are very happy – why change?"
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the best RPGs of all time, and it's in plenty good company.
